Technology is great, but my favorite portable music creation device is still manuscript paper. Unfortunately, that’s usually meant giant notebooks and/or ungainly stacks of loose-leaf music paper. Reader Joshua Schnable brings good news: one of the best notebook and sketchbook makers in the business, the legendary Moleskine, has released a gorgeous 8-staff music notebook:
Moleskine Pocket Music Notebook
Photo: The European Paper Company
At 9×14 cm it’s just the right size, with 192 pages. Made in Italy (like all great notebooks), with the trademark oilcloth-bound cover, acid-free pages, expanding pocket in the back, elastic band for securing the notebook and ribbon placeholder . . . well, anyone who knows the Moleskine stuff knows what I’m talking about. Now great musicians can join the ranks of Matisse, Hemingway, and other famous Moleskine customers.
And for anyone who doesn’t know what music notation is, Moleskine helpfully explains: “each staff consists of five horizontal lines, with four spaces between, on which musical notation is written.”
Lest you think I’m marketing for the Moleskine people, the notebook is sadly out-of-stock — bet they didn’t realizing how many budding Beethovens would snap this up. A notification list is available for when they’re shipping again.